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Pan Am Games pays out $10.6M in travel grants to athletes, coaches

Travel grants to athletes from across the Americas were needed to win Pan Am bid, says chair David Peterson

Former Ontario premier David Peterson, now chair of the TO2015 organizing committee, spearheaded the bidding campaign five years ago for Toronto to win the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games. (Keith Beaty / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Canadian taxpayers will pay more than $9 million — roughly $1,000 for each international participant — to help competitors and their coaches travel to Toronto’s Pan Am and Parapan Am Games next year.

The travel grants are benefits in addition to the free food, accommodation and ground transportation provided to all participants by Toronto’s host organizing committee. The practice of giving travel grants for international competitions has been growing, and former Ontario premier David Peterson, now chair of the TO2015 organizing committee, said it is a bidding “tradition” for cities that hope to host multi-sport events.

“You cannot win without it. That’s the way it is,” said Peterson of the travel aid. “It’s the (buy-in) price of poker.”

Public money accounts for about 90 per cent of the estimated $10.6 million being spent by Toronto Games organizers to subsidize travel costs for 11,000 athletes, coaches and team officials (including Canadians) competing across the GTA in July and August.

Of that amount, Canadian athletes could receive upwards of $500,000 in travel subsidies, though exactly how much is unclear at this time. The other 10 per cent of travel support comes from private sources including sponsorships.

The travel grants are not based on financial need.

The funding arrangement means the powerful U.S. contingent with nearly 1,500 participants could top $1 million in aid while smaller nations, like St. Kitts and Nevis, will get a few thousand dollars for its handful of athletes and coaches.

The Star found that no accounting is required by Toronto organizers to show how the 41 national amateur sports bodies (which govern their own Olympic and Paralympic programs, including Pan Am Games preparations) will spend the money.

Toronto beat out two other cities — Lima and Bogota — which also offered travel subsidies as part of their bidding strategy for the 2015 Games. The Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), based in Mexico, awarded the event to Toronto in 2009.

Peterson’s bid group publicly committed to the travel grants five years ago without knowing the final cost of that financial aid.

In Toronto’s 2009 bid book — much like a blueprint of athletic and financial promises made by a potential host city to stage a sports event — the travel grants were pledged without a dollar figure attached. The grants were to be based on low-cost economy round-trip airfares from this year. Peterson said it would have been difficult in 2009 to predict future airline fees to provide a total grant estimate at that time.

The previous Pan Am and Parapan Am Games were staged by the Mexican city of Guadalajara in 2011. It was the second time that subsidies were awarded (Rio de Janeiro was first in 2007). The Canadian Olympic Committee, which governs the country’s amateur sports programs, refused to disclose how much Canadians received from either Pan Am Games organizers.

Ivar Sisniega, one of the main Guadalajara organizers, said in an email he could not recall the amount of money sent to the Canadian Olympic Committee but confirmed his group paid “for all the plane tickets for the participants” at the Pan Am Games.

For the Parapan athletes, plane fare was not provided but room and board at the athletes’ village was covered. Sisniega said the Canadian Olympic Committee was given a lump-sum payment to book and purchase its own flights to Mexico.

Peterson defends the grants as an “egalitarian” way to assist needy countries to send their best teams to Toronto, which could also be a step toward the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The Toronto Games serve as Olympic qualifiers for 19 events in the Brazilian city as well as for all 15 Parapan events with sports at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.

“If you could figure out a way to determine financial need of 41 countries, you might be able to peddle that idea to PASO,” Peterson said. “But I’ve never been able to figure out a way to compare. Does Bolivia get it but not Guatemala? And not Cuba, because they are state-supported? There are varying degrees of government involvement in all of these countries; they’re all different.”

If air fare costs are partially covered by Toronto organizers, then other money is freed up to be spent directly on the athletes, he said.

“A very large part of this is the development of athletes,” Peterson said. “Some of these countries are not very rich. Some are very rich.”

The first travel grant program was at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. It has since become common practice during bidding wars and has spread to the Pan Am Games and small regional events, according to sports experts contacted by the Star.

Canadians received subsidies from 2012 Summer Olympics host London, according to TO2015 organizers. The Canadian Olympic Committee refused to disclose the grant amount it received.

Bruce Kidd, the interim vice-president and principal at the University of Toronto Scarborough, is internationally renowned for his decades-long involvement with the Olympic movement as an administrator, scholar and athletes’ advocate.

Kidd said he supports the role of wealthy nations assisting needy countries, including the use of travel grants, but wants “accountability and transparency about how the money is actually spent rather than just give everybody the money and hope for the best.”

“I honestly don’t think $1,000 on average (per participant) is out of whack,” said Kidd, a former Olympic runner, said of the TO2015 grants to bring athletes from across the Americas to Toronto.

“But there should be a well-established reporting mechanism, maybe an auditor in the recipient country. You want to make (accountability) simple. You don’t want to make the transaction costs onerous.”

In a Pan Am Games first, the Toronto group will disperse travel grants to Parapan athletes, who will receive the same amount as their country’s Pan Am counterparts.

Bob O’Doherty is senior vice-president of sport and venues for the TO2015 organizing committee. He said pricey travel rates don’t just affect poor countries. Of the 41 nations competing at the Pan Am Games, 28 of them are also sending Parapan Am Games teams.

“The biggest barrier a lot of (national sport bodies) have, regardless of the number of athletes they are sending, is the financial cost of getting their team there” said O’Doherty.

Here’s how travel support grants work:

Grants were calculated a year in advance of the Pan Am Games. They are based on the lowest published price of a round-trip economy fare from a country’s capital city into Toronto Pearson Airport on defined arrival and departure dates. Those grants calculations are already locked in and are non-negotiable.

Grants range from $500 to $1,500. The TO2015 group reported the average grant is about $1,000 per “accredited delegate,” which includes athletes, coaches and team officials.

Grants are not paid to individuals but to a country’s national amateur sport body “to be invested in the best way they see fit,” according to a written statement from Toronto organizers. The sport bodies are officially called National Olympic Committees and National Paralympic Committees.

The expectation is the money will be used to defray travel bills but it may be spent in other ways to aid athletes, Toronto organizers say.

The money is dispersed in three instalments: two before the Games and one in October. The October date allows Toronto organizers to make any necessary payment adjustments.

There are two basic grant requirements: every athlete who is eligible for a grant must compete at the Games. If he or she doesn’t, the grant money is deducted from the October payment. If an athlete is disqualified for any reason, the grant money is deducted from the final payment.

The U.S. Olympic Committee told the Star it will field a Toronto contingent of approximately 1,500: 650 athletes and 400 officials for the Pan Am Games and 250 athletes and 200 officials for the Parapan Am Games.

Toronto organizers said the American grants will be less than the $1,000 average, since the flight calculations are from Washington, D.C., to Toronto. Using an approximate sum of $750 per person, that puts the U.S. travel grant total at about $1.1 million.

When asked what the U.S. Olympic Committee’s position was on accepting travel grants, spokesperson Mark Jones provided this written statement:

“As was the case in Guadalajara in 2011 and London in 2012, we’re grateful to the organizing committee in Toronto for their support and look forward to a great Pan Am and Parapan Games next year,” Jones said in an email.

The Canadian Olympic Committee would not provide an estimate of Toronto Pan Am participants but based on the Guadalajara event, it will likely be a large squad.

For that event, 493 Canadian athletes and 301 support staff participated. Canada also sent a Parapan squad of 205 to Guadalajara, bringing the overall squad to 999.

For the Toronto Games, the Canadian Parapan team estimates it will double its entries to about 400 (250 athletes and 150 support staff).

The Pan Am Games, which will run from July 10-26, includes teams from 41 countries. The Parapan Am Games runs Aug. 7-15 and involves 28 nations.

The overall budget for the Toronto Pan Am and Parapan Am Games is $1.4 billion (including the travel support grants). Public money funds about 90 per cent of the $1.4 billion. Toronto organizers expect to attract 23,000 volunteers to help run both sets of Games.

Over the past year, TO2015 organizers have dealt with a rash of spending scandals, including the firing of former CEO Ian Troop.

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